Iraqi Kurdish forces have confined thousands of Arabs in “security zones” in areas of northern Iraq that they captured since August 2014 from the extremist group Islamic State (IS), Human Rights Watch (HRW) said today.

​For months Kurdish forces barred Arabs displaced by fighting from returning to their homes in portions of Ninewa and Erbil provinces, while permitting Kurds to return to those areas and even to move into homes of Arabs who fled. Some restrictions were eased in January 2015, after HRW communicated with the Kurdish regional government about the issue, but others remain.